with no agreement, going over the fiscal cliff would be painful. the automatic tax increases break down like this: households making $20,000 to $40,000 would see an increase in $1,200 a year. incomes of $40,000 to $64,000 would see taxes rise $2,000 and in the $64,000 to $108,000 bracket taxes go up $3,500 a year. mr. obama and the republican speaker of the house talked this over today and here's major garrett at the white house. major? >> reporter: scott, there is a code of silence the white house and speaker boehner's try to apply to these phone conversations, releasing as few details as possible to protect the underlying negotiations. nevertheless, cbs news has learned the following: the speaker and the president spoke before treasury secretary geithner's comments about going over the cliff. the conversation was described as brief, meaning shorter than the 28-minute conversation speaker boehner and the president had last week. also those familiar with the conversation tell me-- or do not used words like "curt," "frank" and "direct" meaning it wa